Hot-exciton harvesting via through-space single-molecule based white-light emission and optical waveguides

Through-space donor–alkyl bridge–acceptor (D–σ–A) luminogens are developed as new organic single-molecule white light emitters (OSMWLEs) involving multiple higher lying singlet (S_n) and triplet (T_m) states (hot-excitons). Experimental and theoretical results confirm the origin of white light emission due to the co-existence of prompt fluorescence from locally excited states, thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF), and fast/slow dual phosphorescence color mixing simultaneously. Notably, the fast phosphorescence was observed due to trace amounts of isomeric impurities from commercial carbazole, while H-/J-aggregation resulted in slow phosphorescence. Crystal structure-packing-property analysis revealed that the alkyl chain length induced supramolecular self-assembly greatly influenced the solid-state optical properties. Remarkably, the 1D-microrod crystals of OSMWLEs demonstrated the first examples of triplet harvesting waveguides by self-guiding the generated phosphorescence through light propagation along their longitudinal axis. This work thus highlights an uncommon design strategy to achieve multi-functional OSMWLEs with in-depth mechanistic insights and optical waveguiding applications making them a potentially new class of white emissive materials.

Through-space donor–alkyl bridge–acceptor multifunctional organic single molecules that simultaneously displayed white light emission, thermally activated delayed fluorescence, room temperature dual phosphorescence and optical wave-guiding properties.     

Metal-biradical chains from a high-spin ligand and bis(hexafluoroacetylacetonato)copper(II)

The synthesis, X-ray crystal structure, and magnetic studies of a rare example of organic/inorganic spin hybrid clusters extended in infinite ladder-type chain [Cu(C5F6HO2)2]7(C35H35N5O4)2 ([Cu(hfac)2]7(pyacbisNN)2, 2) formed by the reaction of a high spin nitronylnitroxide biradical C35H35N5O4 (pyacbisNN, 1) and bis(hexafluroacetylacetonate)copper(II) = Cu(hfac)2 are described. Single-crystal X-ray structure analysis revealed the triclinic P1 space group of 2 with the following parameters: a = 10.6191(4) A, b = 19.6384(7) A, c = 21.941(9) A, alpha = 107.111(7) degrees, beta = 95.107(8) degrees, gamma = 94.208(0) degrees , Z = 2. Each repeating unit in 2 carries a centrosymmetric cyclic six spin and a linear five spin cluster with four different copper coordination environments having octahedral and square planar geometries. These clusters are interconnected to form infinite chains which are running along the crystallographic b axis. The magnetic measurements show nearly paramagnetic behavior with very small variations over a large temperature range. The magnetic properties are thus result of complex competitions of many weak ferro- and antiferromagnetic interactions, which appear as small deviations from quite linear mu(eff) vs T dependence at low temperature. At high temperature (300-14 K), antiferromagnetic behavior dominates a little, while at very low temperature (14-2 K), a small increase of mu(eff) was observed. The magnetic susceptibility data are described by the Curie-Weiss law [chi = C/(T - theta)] with the optimal parameters C = 4.32 +/- 0.01 emuK/mol and theta = - 0.6 +/- 0.3 K, where C is the Curie constant and theta is the Weiss temperature.     

Impurity profile of macitentan in tablet dosage form using a stability-indicating high performance liquid chromatography method and forced degradation study

Macitentan (MAC) is a pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) drug marketed as a tablet and often has stability issues in the final dosage form. Quantitative determination of MAC and its associated impurities in tablet dosage form has not been previously reported. This study quantified impurities present in Macitentan tablets using a binary solvent-based gradient elution method using reversed phase-high performance liquid chromatography. The developed method was validated per International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines and the drug product was subjected to forced degradation studies to evaluate stability. The developed method efficiently separated the drug and impurities (48 min) without interference from solvents, excipients, or other impurities. The developed method met all guidelines in all characteristics with recoveries ranging from 85%-115%, linearity with r² ≥ 0.9966, and substantial robustness. The stability-indicating nature of the method was evaluated using stressed conditions (hydrolysis:1 N HCl at 80℃/15 min; 1 N NaOH at 25℃/45 min; humidity stress (90% relative humidity) at 25℃ for 24 h, oxidation:at 6% (v/v) H₂O₂, 80℃/15 min, thermolysis:at 105℃/16 h and photolysis:UV light at 200 Wh/m²; Fluorescent light at 1.2 million luxh). Forced degradation experiments showed that the developed method was effective for impurity profiling. All stressed samples were assayed and mass balance was>96%. Forced degradation results indicated that MAC tablets were sensitive to hydrolysis (acid and alkali) and thermal conditions. The developed method is suitable for both assay and impurity determination, which is applicable to the pharmaceutical industry.     

Experimental study of shape transitions and energy scaling in thin non-Euclidean plates

We present the first quantitative measurements of shape and energy variation in non-Euclidean plates. Using environmentally responsive gel, we construct non-Euclidean disks of constant imposed Gaussian curvature, K(tar). We vary the disks' thickness t(0) and measure the dependence of configurations, surface curvature, and energy content on t(0). For K(tar)<0, configurations are of a single wavy mode and undergo a set of bifurcations that leads to their refinement with decreasing thickness. This leads to sharp increase in the amount of surface bending as t(0)→0, and to a slow decay of both bending and stretching energies. Both vary like t(0)(2), compared with t(0)(3) of the bending energy in disks with K(tar)>0.     

2,3-Dihydroxypyridine-loaded cellulose: a new macromolecular chelator for metal enrichment prior to their determination by atomic absorption spectrometry

New macromolecular chelators have been synthesized, by loading 2,3-dihydroxypyridine (DHP) on cellulose via linkers -NH-CH₂-CH₂-NH-SO₂-C₆H₄-N=N- and -SO₂-C₆H₄-N=N-, and characterized by elemental analysis, TGA, IR, and CPMAS ¹³C NMR spectra. The cellulose with DHP anchored by the shorter linker had better sorption capacity (between 69.7 and 431.1 mol g^–1) for Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II), Pb(II), and Fe(III)) than the other (51.9–378.1 mol g^–1); the former was therefore studied in detail as a solid extractant for these metal ions. The optimum pH ranges for quantitative sorption (recovery 97.6–99.8%) on this matrix were: 7.0–9.0, 6.0–9.0, 3.0–8.0, 6.0–8.0, 6.0–9.0, 6.0–7.0, and 2.0–6.0 respectively. Desorption was quantitative with 0.5 mol L^–1 HCl and 0.5 mol L^–1 HNO₃ (for Pb). Simultaneous sorption (at pH 7.0) of all metal ions other than Fe(III) was possible if their total concentration did not exceed the sorption capacity (lowest value). The recovery of seven metal ions from their mixture at pH 6.0 was nearly quantitative when the concentration level of each metal ion was 0.2 g mL^–1. The optimum flow rate of metal ion solutions for quantitative sorption of metal onto a column packed with DHP-modified cellulose was 2–7 mL min^–1, whereas for desorption the optimum flow rate for the acid solution was 2–4 mL min^–1. The time needed to reach 50% of the total loading capacity (t_1/2) was <5 min for all the metal ions except Ni and Pb. The limit of detection (blank+3s) was from 0.70 to 4.75 g L^–1 and the limit of quantification (blank+10s) was between 0.79 and 4.86 g L^–1. The tolerance limits for NaCl, NaBr, NaI, NaNO₃, Na₂SO₄, Na₃PO_4, humic acid, EDTA, Ca(II), and Mg(II) for sorption of all metal ions are reported. The column packed with DHP-anchored cellulose can be reused at least 20 times for enrichment of metal ions in water sample. It has been used to enrich all the metal ions in pharmaceutical and water samples before their determination by flame AAS. RSD for these determinations was between 1.1 and 6.9%.     

Measurement-induced nonlocality based on affinity

Measurement-induced nonlocality(MIN), a quantum correlation measure for bipartite systems,is an indicator of maximal global effects due to locally invariant von Neumann projective measurements. It is originally defined as the maximal square of the Hilbert-Schmidt norm of the difference between pre-and post-measurement states. In this article, we propose a new form of MIN based on affinity. This quantity satisfies all the criteria of a bona fide measure of quantum correlation measures. This quantity is evaluated for both arbitrary pure and 2×n dimensional(qubit-qudit) mixed states. The operational meaning of the proposed quantity is interpreted in terms of the interferometric power of the quantum state. We apply these results on two-qubit mixed states, such as the Werner, isotropic and Bell diagonal states.     

8-Hydroxyquinoline anchored to silica gel via new moderate size linker: synthesis and applications as a metal ion collector for their flame atomic absorption spectrometric determination

The silica gel modified with (3-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane) was reacted with 5-formyl-8-hydroxyquinoline (FHOQ_x) to anchor 8-quinolinol ligand on the silica gel. It was characterised with cross polarisation magic angle spinning (CPMAS) NMR and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transformation (DRIFT) spectroscopy and used for the preconcentration of Cu(II), Pb(II), Ni(II), Fe(III), Cd(II), Zn(II) and Co(II) prior to their determination by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. The surface area of the modified silica gel has been found to be 227 m² g⁻¹ and the two pKa values as 3.8 and 8.0. The optimum pH ranges for quantitative sorption are 4.0–7.0, 4.5–7.0, 3.0–6.0, 5.0–8.0, 5.0–8.0, 5.0–8.0 and 4.0–7.0 for Cu, Pb, Fe, Zn, Co, Ni and Cd, respectively. All the metals can be desorbed with 2.5 mol l⁻¹ HCl or HNO₃. The sorption capacity for these metal ions is in range of 92–448.0 μmol g⁻¹ and follows the order Cd3, NaCl, NaBr, Na₂SO₄ and Na₃PO₄, glycine, sodium citrate, EDTA, humic acid and cations Ca(II), Mg(II), Mn(II) and Cr(III) in the sorption of all the seven metal ions are reported. The preconcentration factors are 150, 250, 200, 300, 250, 300 and 200 for Cd, Co, Zn, Cu, Pb, Fe and Ni, respectively and t_1/2 values <1 min except for Ni. The 95% extraction by batch method takes ≤25 min. The simultaneous enrichment and determination of all the metals are possible if the total load of the metal ions is less than sorption capacity. In river water samples all these metal ions were enriched with the present ligand anchored silica gel and determined with flame atomic absorption spectrometer (R.S.D.≤6.4%). Cobalt contents of pharmaceutical samples (vitamin tablet) were preconcentrated with the present chelating silica gel and estimated by flame AAS, with R.S.D.1.4%. The results are in the good agreement with the certified value, 1.99 μg g⁻¹ of the tablets. Iron and copper in certified reference materials (synthetic) SLRS-4 and SLEW-3 have been enriched with the modified silica gel and estimated with R.S.D.<5%.